Moron Redneck From Georgia Likens Obama to Hitler Dictatorship

Washington Nov. 10th, The Associated Press

"That's exactly what Hitler did in Nazi Germany and it's exactly what the Soviet Union did," Broun said. "When he's proposing to have a national security force that's answering to him, that is as strong as the U.S. military, he's showing me signs of being Marxist."

(...) "We can't be lulled into complacency," Broun said. 

"You have to remember that Adolf Hitler was elected in a democratic Germany. I'm not comparing him to Adolf Hitler. 

What I'm saying is there is the potential of going down that road."

Did this nut-job just say he wasn't comparing [Obama] to Adolf Hitler?

Leaving the gun-rights position aside as a matter of serious debate, the rest is the kind of lunacy that gave the Republicans a higher than usual concentrated turn-out and "victories" in Appalachia, the Ozarks, Texas and the good Congressman's home state of Georgia. This truly a testament to the Republican's "Southern Strategy", begun under Nixon in 1960, and held in greater and greater esteem by Lee Atwater, Karl Rove, and now Steve Schmidt. It looks now though, that greater participation in these areas by Republicans and likewise for Democrats in nearly every other demographic and geographic category translated into doom for the Right. There is some justice to be had from time to time, and this was earned by Democrats and Independents in this race.

Hmmm.... 23% of Texans say Obama is definitely a Muslim. University Of Texas (Austin) Whoa! Kentuckians beat the Texans with 28% of Republicans, 4 % Democrats and 11% Independents who believe the great lie and racist code. Lexington Herald-Leader, (KY)

This is the sort of gibberish that rednecks and bigots find so attractive about Sarah Palin. They bought it all, "Muslim", "terrorist", "devil", "Anti-Christ", "Beast", "Membership in Hamas". "Socialist", "Communist", and so much more, Some, if not all, is looked upon my many as white racist code.

You know what? To hear Sarah Palin Whine about the awful treatment she got for 69 days as a nominee is really ridiculous. You wanna play in the big-leagues Sarah? Better get some thicker skin you "Diva" you! You chose yourself and lobbied to get this job. You chose to put yourself in the untenable position, including being a purely political and sexist pick. I have no sympathy madam. God did not choose you, you chose to do this, and now you are paying the price. Quit blaming everyone else. Rehashing and lying about the clothes and Darfur, and the other stuff might get you a few points with the Radical base of the party, but the other 75% of the electorate is getting very tired of your drivel. Poor Sarah. So far the leaks are petty finger-pointing, but you keep busting yourself with blanket denials, and it all starts to have a ring of truth to it. My advice to you is to quit while you're ahead.. If you go to the well one too many times, these people in the McCain campaign are going to unload on you with both barrels of the truth, men and women alike. They've been kind so far, believe me.

Dogs Help Veterans Heal And Promote Independence And Normalcy

Photo: Tyrone Turner for The New York Times veterans helped by healing paws Copyright 2008 © NYT

“In November 2007, [Sergeant Eugene Gwathmey] was teamed with Larry, an English Labrador and golden retriever mix. The bond between them was instant.
Larry helps with walking stability and P.T.S.D., and has also demonstrated the potentially life-saving ability to alert Sergeant Gwathmey to a seizure before it happens. Larry has changed his life, he said, and has given him back a large degree of independence.
“Before Larry, I couldn’t stand crowds,” he said. “My confidence in being out in public has gone from not going out at all to going out on my own.” Sergeant Gwathmey is also being treated for traumatic brain injury and is assigned to the Wounded Warrior Regiment at Walter Reed.”

(...) Sue Downes, 28, enlisted in the Army in 2004 as a precursor to a career in law enforcement. In 2006 she was deployed to Afghanistan as a military police officer, and there, on Nov. 28, her military vehicle exploded after hitting an improvised explosive device.
Because of the mountainous terrain, a medevac unit was unable to reach her. “I bled out for six hours,” Ms. Downes said. She was eventually treated at two local NATO hospitals, where both her legs were amputated.

(...) In addition to helping Ms. Downes walk with her prosthetic legs, Lila has become a loving and intuitive companion, particularly with P.T.S.D.

Lila also likes to go to PetSmart. Ms. Downes said she was thankful that while out in public, people tended to pay more attention to Lila than to her disability.

“Sue has overcome a lot,” Mr. Naranjo said. “I think Lila makes her feel at ease. In the Army, we have this thing called a battle buddy. You never go anywhere by yourself, and you always take your battle buddy because they are there to protect you and you are there to protect them. It’s the same concept with a service dog.”

I'm going to try not to complain so fu****g much, and remember these folks and their sacrifice. Trite? So what. Today is Veterans Day.  Everyday should be Veterans Day.

Community Of Veterans.Org A Social Network To Aid Veterans

Conceived by Paul Rieckhoff, founder, and the vets over yonder at Iraq And Afghanistan Veterans Of America . This is a great thing to support. I'm going to do it.

PS: Paul Rieckhoff is one of the millions of absolute Fucking Heroes that I am thinking of this Veterans Day.

Another Ridiculous "Death Of Blogging" Item, And A Reasoned Response

I have found my finger on this button 2-or-3 times since I started blogging roughly seven months ago. It has been the sense of community, (however small) , and a few people who found something worth looking at, that brought me back from the precipice.

A good friend, (who happens to be an unpretentious veteran blogger), finally convinced me with the notion that we all have something to offer, given that our motivations are sincere. Others have simply shown interest, been supportive, or both.

That, along with commentary like this,(an excerpt), from Uncertain Times:

"(…)these specious "death of blogging" items are the products of bloggers that are out of touch, misinformed and running out of material. What is truly passé is tired masturbatory ranting about the death of the blogosphere.

The only reason I stoop to blog about blogging is that I'd like to see young people and newcomers greeted with the notion of "the life of blogging" - arriving to find unfurrowed fields of potential so that we can enjoy what their unique minds have to share. Remember, the rest of the world is coming online, individual by individual, and I'm sure they are going to have something to say.

Perhaps this new era we find ourselves in might also be reflected in how we interact and share our experiences and outlooks online - for it is indeed time for change. Time to slough off the fluff and keep on."

Thanks guys.

19th Century And Victorian "Ethnographic" "Types" A Sort Of Photo-Racism

Peabody Museum, Harvard.edu

Peabody Number: 2003.1.2223.396
Display Title: Japanese samurai in colorful armor
Descriptive Terms: Photograph
Date: ca. 1870
Provenience: Asia; Japan
Dimensions: 24.8 cm x 18.6 cm
Materials: Albumen print with applied color

I mentioned cultural "Types" in 19th century and early 20th century photography in passing recently, so here I am going to try to flesh out the general idea using someone else's words, given that they do it better than I ever could. It bears mentioning though, that most of this stuff has been sitting in archives and museum collections for decades, and until recently considered as legitimate "ethnographic" and cultural studies of "exotic" peoples. Asian, Native American, African and other nationalities were all photographed by European photographers in studios as tourist material showing each native "type" and their own special features. There is one particular researcher that I cannot find in my files, that basically blew the lid off of this sort of "Ethnographic Study". I'll try to find him.

"The title "Meiji." which means enlightened peace, was given to the new Emperor and his reign--a period which lasted forty-five years until his death in 1912.

The photographers idealized old Japan and ignored its transformation from an insular, medieval country to a modern land. This one -sided photographic view gave outsiders the misleading impression that Japan was a quaint, archaic nation well into the twentieth century."
Standford University Albumen Gallery

"By the late 1860s and early 1870s, the production of these photo albums became a prosperous and competitive commercial enterprise, primarily pioneered by the European photographer and entrepreneur Felice Beato, who would leave an indelible impact on subsequent photographers in the country, both western and Japanese. However, western photographers such as Beato did not always portray the reality of Japanese life but rather presented to the tourist a constructed first impression of Japan, one which was antiquated, exotic, charming, or even violent."
Julia Fischer. Her paper is here: The Knowledge Bank, (Ohio State University).

Crazy Angels

It's a rare moment when you get to see real history playing out across the pixels of your television screen. This night was one. The junior senator from Illinois has accomplished the impossible, and the nation has moved into a new era. There are some good things about this, many of them emotional and psychological. Finally, our fellow Americans with dark skin have received the affirmation they have needed for a very long time. There's nothing wrong with that. In the long run, it will make life better and healthier in our communities. Perhaps a large segment of our young people will stop destroying themselves and begin to realize that there are good possibilities for their lives. It's hard to feel bad about that.

I can't help but believe that the genius of America has shown itself again: we have done the unexpected. Our Democracy has surprised us. Our crazy angels have carried the day.

I'm not wild about Obama. I wasn't wild about McCain either. Obama has set the expectations very high, and if history is any measure, such messianic hopes as inspired by Obama are doomed to disappointment. I remember the campaign of Bill Clinton and all of the lofty promises he made. I also remember how few of those promises were fulfilled. I notice that the pundits are already drawing comparisons between Clinton and Obama, and promising how Obama isn't going to make the same "mistakes" that Clinton did. But, when you pin hopes as high as Obama has, disappointments are inevitable. How long before they set in, and a whole new generation of voters is cursed with the same cynicism that has infected us?

I feel like I have a migraine coming on. This election thing has been going on for so long and I have been so focused on it, that my brain doesn’t seem to know what to do or how to turn itself off. Emptiness. I bought a new computer today. Tomorrow morning, I will drag myself out of bed and resume planning how I will migrate all of my software and files to a new box. I will be scanning the web for a sense of how things are going. I will do my work and all of the other ordinary things I did yesterday. Not much will be changed for me.

A Fearful Caveat For All Voters:

Ah, isn't that the beauty of our great system.

via: Syd's Journal

I Regret That I Have But One Country To Give My Vote To

handwrittenblogs:

via: cvxn

I am heartened to be reminded that contrary to recent policy in this country, all peoples, cultures and countries are inter-dependent, and that outside of our narrow, arrogant, and belligerent view of the world, folks have some common sense.

This is really appropriate for many of us who have felt trapped and pretty much alone, even among our fellow citizens for a long, long, time. I don't know you, cvxn from Vancouver, but I thank you just the same.

Get Up. Everyone's Waiting.

Everyone's waiting for you to get up and go outside.

via: I wrote this for you.

Voice Or No Voice. It's "Easy"

"...after all,

... it’s the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it’s always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it’s a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament or a communist dictatorship. 

Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to do the bidding of the leaders.

...It's easy."

Hermann Goering, 18 April, 1946 One week before execution date/suicide. (as quoted by G.M. Gilbert’s ‘Nuremberg Diary’ 1947) Farrar, Straus and Company, pages: 278-279) via:

Snopes.com

Odalisques, Circassian Beauties, Sideshows And Victorian Obssessions

"Reclining Odalisque", 1858 Roger Fenton (English, 1819–1869)
Salted paper print from glass negative; 28.5 x 39 cm (11 1/4 x 15 3/8 in.)

The Rubel Collection, Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace, Anonymous, Joyce and Robert Menschel, Jennifer and Joseph Duke, and Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee Gifts, 1997 (1997.382.34)

Description:

"Fenton made a series of photographs inspired by the Victorian vogue for the exotic trappings of empire, modeled on the harem scenes and odalisques of Eugène Delacroix and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres that he had seen in Paris, and motivated by his desire to elevate the status of photography by tackling themes more frequently treated in painting.


"Reclining Odalisque" is among the quietest pictures in his series. There are no cowering slaves or leering sultans, no music or dancing, few stage props, no narrative tale. The odalisque is simply there, a vision floating in darkness: the exquisite embodiment of Victorian fascination with the exotic and the erotic." via: Metropolitan Museum Of Art, New York.

See also: Circassian Beauties and even more Victorian "Pretend" Odalisques over yonder at SideShow World

A Figure Hopping, Photograph By Eadweard Muybridge, 1887

A Figure Hopping. Photograph By Eadweard Muybridge. (1887) via: Britannica.com

Figure Hopping, series of photographs by Eadweard Muybridge, 1887; in the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution, New York City. The series depicts a sequence of eight stages of movement, simultaneously photographed by multiple cameras at three different positions.
Courtesy of the Cooper—Hewitt Museum of Decorative Arts and Design, Smithsonian Institution

The New Right: Waiting For Reagan, Bush, McCain, And Palin

"Waiting For Reagan" (1982) © Pat Oliphant/Universal Syndicate

Waiting for Reagan, 1982.
Published by Universal Press Syndicate August 11, 1982.
Ink with opaque white out graphite underdrawing.
Art Wood Collection of Cartoon and Caricature
Prints and Photographs Division
LC-DIG-ppmsca-10609 (23)
Image reproduced courtesy of
Patrick Oliphant and Susan Conway

"Pat Oliphant (b. 1935) captures President Ronald Reagan's political plight in the summer of 1982 in this dramatic cartoon. The Moral Majority and other rightist groups publicly criticized Reagan for what they perceived as his neglect of social issues important to conservatives. Inspired by Thomas Nast's depiction of the infamous Boss Tweed and his Tammany Hall cronies as vultures, Oliphant pictures Reagan's critics, "The New Right," as five menacing, vulture-like creatures, out on a limb. One of the great draftsmen in the field, Oliphant combines boldly rendered forms and dramatic perspective in this witty allusion to his artistic predecessor. "

via: LOC

John McCain And Barack Obama Must Denounce All Violence, Incitement To Violence And Race-Baiting NOW, Before It's Too Late

Image via: Wonkette

All violence, incitements to violence, and race-baiting MUST BE DENOUNCED by both campaigns NOW, before we spiral into a brutal national tragedy we cannot control.

Ashley Todd, Chad Michael Morisette, as well as the Timothy Rundles,  (Deland, Florida), of the world must be stopped and denounced forcefully by not just the candidates, but the media.

I am waiting  an Obama campaign statement concerning  the attack on a 75 year-old McCain supporter yesterday in Deland, Florida. I would be shocked if they do not issue one.

I am still waiting for John McCain to open his mouth and decry the sort of lynch-mob race-baiting that Ashley Todd perpetrated several days ago. She is obviously not so ill that she misunderstood the implications and result that would be garnered by her carefully layered provocation. I am astounded that she was not jailed over this, and it's me more than most who will give madmen and women the benefit of the doubt.

We are in very dangerous territory here, folks.

Telemarken-Dalen, Norway Circa 1900

via:LOC

McCarthy Stripling Nixon Reagan Bush-43 Cheney John McCain Sarah Palin McCarthyism Racism

"Since the time of McCarthy, the word "McCarthyism" has entered American speech as a general term for a variety of distasteful practices:  aggressively questioning a person's patriotism, making poorly supported accusations, using accusations of disloyalty to pressure a person to adhere to conformist politics or discredit an opponent, subverting civil rights in the name of national security, and the use of demagoguery are all often referred to as McCarthyism."

via: nationmaster.com

Rove Nixon Long Helms Dole McCarthy Bush Cheney John McCain Sarah Palin Steve Schmidt Reagan Bachman Limbaugh Savage Coulter Hewitt Kristol Atwater

Ever wonder about the history and origins of Fascist strategies? Here, a dedicated student of it holds forth

"That's Easy."

"All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and [for] exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."

Hermann Goering, 18 April 1946  (as quoted in 'Nuremberg Diary' G.M Gilbert) Farrar, Struas and Company, 1947 ) (pages 278-279) via:  Snopes.com

You will be assimilated:

"Supposing you have tried and failed again and again.  You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call 'failure' is not the falling down, but the staying down"

Mary Pickford (via: thresca)